This summer Director, Kaig Lightner reached out to the author of a fantastic article in The Guardian after discovering that the author was tapping into an issue of inequality in youth soccer nation-wide. Much to Kaig's surprise the author quickly put him in touch with the US Soccer Diversity Task Force. Kaig had a very productive and exciting conversation with Ben Lear of the Task Force where Kaig learned that PCFC is the only sustainable program of it's kind in the entire Northwest Region. This was exciting to hear and also fueled Kaig's passion to continue to make PCFC accessible, affordable and professional.

As a result of being on the radar of the US Soccer Diversity Task Force Kaig now meets every other month via conference call with leaders of the Task Force along with 15-20 other community leaders around the nation who are also striving to equal the playing field for all youth to have access to soccer programs.

The Task Force has made a serious commitment to provide the US Soccer Federation (the organization that governs youth soccer) with hard facts about how many youth around the country are being excluded due to multiple barriers. The goal of providing these facts is to begin to change the way that youth soccer has been governed for nearly 50 years. There is a lot of work to be done, but with programs like PCFC gaining attention nationally it will hopefully bring more light to the disproportionate access to soccer for kids from communities of color, low-income and marginalized areas across the country. And by shining light onto this issue the hope is that more grassroots programs will have access to funding, resources, and coaching education.

Please continue to follow PCFC news to find out about how we are assisting in this major national shift!